Category: News

Augme Technologies have secured an accounts receivable credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The loan allows Augme to borrow up to $5 million. Augme and unit Hipcricket provide a customer engagement platform.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – May 9, 2013) – Augme® Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AUGT) (“Augme”) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Hipcricket®, Inc. (“Hipcricket”) (collectively “the Company”), a technology leader in mobile marketing and advertising, announced today that it has secured an accounts receivable credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The revolving loan credit facility has a two-year term and allows Augme to borrow up to $5 million based upon a predetermined formula in the credit and security agreement.
“The accounts receivable facility is an efficient way for Augme to access cash without diluting equity,” said Ivan Braiker, CEO of Augme. “Our strong relationships with Silicon Valley Bank helped us to secure this non-dilutive financing option, as we prepare for the next stage of growth at Augme.”
About Augme Technologies, Inc.
Augme® Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AUGT), and its wholly-owned subsidiary Hipcricket, provides a customer engagement platform that empowers brands, agencies and media properties to engage customers, drive loyalty and increase sales via mobile. Hipcricket’s customers connect with consumers across every mobile channel, including SMS, 2D/QR codes, mobile websites, advertising networks, social media and branded apps. Hipcricket’s proven technology, strategic and marketing services and experienced account management teams have provided measurable success to a broad range of national and regional brand-name leaders (e.g., MillerCoors, Clear Channel) across an industry-leading 250,000+ campaigns.
In addition to AD LIFE®, Augme in 2011 acquired the assets of Hipcricket, Inc. and JAGTAG, Inc. and licenses the digital broadcast platform BOOMBOX®. Augme is headquartered in Kirkland, WA, with operations in New York City, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Miami. For more information visit www.augme.com or www.hipcricket.com.
Augme Technologies™, Hipcricket®, Augme®, AD LIFE®, BOOMBOX®, AD SERVE® and the Augme logo are trademarks of Augme Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2009-13.
About Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley Bank is the premier bank for technology, life sciences, cleantech, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. SVB provides industry knowledge and connections, financing, treasury management, corporate investment and international banking services to its clients worldwide through 28 U.S. offices and six international operations. http://www.svb.com/.

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It was a busy week in the tech world. In between rumors of billion dollar acquisitions, we plucked three interesting stories for you to sink your brain into this weekend. Mathew Ingram joins the show for a look at how LinkedIn is evolving into a media entity. Erica Ogg and Kevin Tofel help us examine whether Apple’s iPhone is just becoming a dumb platform for Google and others. And finally, Janko Roettgers breaks down the breaking (as of recording time) news of YouTube subscriptions.

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Co-Hosts: Chris Albrecht, Tom Krazit
Guests: Mathew Ingram, Erica Ogg, Kevin Tofel, Janko Roettgers

LinkedIn continues its evolution as a media entity with the launch of magazine-style news channels

Google lets iOS apps direct users to Chrome instead of Safari

YouTube launches its paid subscription channels with select partners

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Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc, two of Dell Inc’s largest shareholders, have proposed an alternative to a $24.4 billion buyout deal led by founder Michael Dell, the Wall Street Journal reported.

(Reuters) – Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc, two of Dell Inc’s largest shareholders, have proposed an alternative to a $24.4 billion buyout deal led by founder Michael Dell, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Icahn and Southeastern, both vocal opponents of the deal, proposed giving Dell shareholders the option to keep holding stock in the company and take an additional $12 a share in cash or stock in a letter to Dell’s board Thursday night, the paper said.

The letter said Icahn and Southeastern together hold 13 percent of Dell’s stock. The duo have argued that the buyout effort from Michael Dell and private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners significantly undervalues the company, according to the paper.

In April, Blackstone pulled out just a month after it launched a challenge to the billionaire’s attempt to take Dell private. Icahn and Blackstone each offered alternatives that would keep part of the company public.
Representatives for the PC maker could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

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U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital raised about $300 million by selling its roughly 10 percent stake in Indian commercial vehicle financier Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd to India’s Piramal Group, generating a near seven times return on a 2006 investment, Reuters is reporting.

(Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital raised about $300 million by selling its roughly 10 percent stake in Indian commercial vehicle financier Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd to India’s Piramal Group, generating a near seven times return on a 2006 investment.

Piramal Enterprises said it bought a 10 percent stake in Shriram Transport through a block deal for about 16.52 billion Indian rupees ($305.21 million), or 723 per share.

Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Enterprises, told reporters the stake was bought from TPG.

TPG, which manages about $55 billion globally, invested a little more than $100 million in Shriram Transport’s parent company, Shriram Group, in 2005. A year later it took a 20 percent stake in Shriram Transport against its investment in Shriram Group, valued at 113 rupees per share, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

TPG declined to comment.

In February, TPG sold half its stake in Shriram Transport to a clutch of institutional investors and raised about $305 million.

Piramal is primarily engaged in the pharmaceutical industry and has interests in financial services and manages a property fund.

Shares in Shriram Transport were up as much as 5.7 percent, to 776.50 rupees, after the deal.

UBS advised Piramal on the deal.

The post TPG Sells Stake in India’s Shriram Transport for $300 Mln appeared first on peHUB.

Ares Management agreed to buy AREA Property Partners. Ares is also buying a minority stake in AREA held by National Australia Bank. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. AREA Property is a real estate management firm that invests across North America, Europe and India.

PRESS RELEASE

Ares Management LLC announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AREA Property Partners, L.P., a top-tier real estate management firm investing across North America, Europe and India. The transaction includes the acquisition of the minority stake in AREA held by National Australia Bank. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory and investor approval.

Lee Neibart, Chief Executive Officer of AREA, will become a Senior Partner of the Ares Real Estate Group. Mr. Neibart will join John Bartling, a Senior Partner of the Ares Real Estate Group, as the Global Co-Heads of the Group. William Benjamin, AREA’s Head of Europe and India, will become a Senior Partner of the Ares Real Estate Group and continue as Head of Europe and India Real Estate.
“AREA’s expertise in value-add and opportunistic equity investing and mezzanine debt will complement our real estate group’s current capabilities in real estate private lending,” said Tony Ressler, Senior Partner and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ares Management. “Further, the entire Ares Management platform will greatly benefit from AREA’s geographic reach, market insights, industry relationships and seasoned investment professionals – especially Lee Neibart in the U.S. and Bill Benjamin in Europe.”
“The combination, which will result in the Ares Real Estate Group having approximately $8 billion of committed capital and more than 70 investment professionals upon closing, will benefit our respective employees, investors and real estate partners,” added Mr. Bartling. “Our expanded offering, along with the significant resources and collaboration from across Ares Management, will make the Ares Real Estate Group a truly differentiated manager with global investment capabilities across the capital spectrum – from debt to equity.”
All existing AREA investment vehicles will continue to be managed by legacy AREA investment professionals in their capacities at Ares Management. William Mack, Founder of AREA, announced he will be stepping down as Chairman of AREA to focus on actively managing his family’s real estate initiatives, investments and philanthropic pursuits. Richard Mack, North America Chief Executive Officer of AREA, will become a Senior Advisor to the Ares Real Estate Group.
“As we transition to this exciting new phase of joining Ares, we want to acknowledge Bill Mack for his foresight, investment insights and unwavering integrity, which shaped the philosophy that has guided our firm over the past two decades. It was his vision and long-term commitment to building AREA that led to this opportunity to partner with Ares,” said Mr. Neibart. “Combining the complementary skill sets and asset classes of both firms will yield superior sourcing opportunities and enhanced credit analysis and information flow that will enable us to bring new products to investors while offering creative debt and equity financing solutions to the marketplace. The Ares Real Estate Group will now be a significant player at a time when we are seeing increasingly compelling opportunities in existing and new mandates.”
Hodes Weill & Associates acted as strategic advisor to AREA Property Partners and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC provided financial advisory services to Ares Management in connection with this transaction.
About Ares Management LLC
Ares Management LLC is a global alternative asset manager and SEC registered investment adviser, which had approximately $59 billion of committed capital under management and approximately 560 employees as of March 31, 2013, before giving effect to this transaction. Ares is headquartered in Los Angeles with professionals located across the United States, Europe and Asia and invests across the capital structure – from senior debt to common equity. Ares’ investment activities are managed by dedicated teams in its Capital Markets, Private Debt, Private Equity and Real Estate investment platforms. Ares Management was built upon the fundamental principle that each platform benefits from being part of the greater whole. This multi-asset class synergy provides its professionals with insights into industry trends, access to significant deal flow and the ability to assess relative value.
For additional information, visit www.aresmgmt.com.
About AREA Property Partners
AREA Property Partners is a leading international real estate investor and fund manager on behalf of prominent government and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and high net worth individuals. Since the firm’s founding in 1993, AREA Property Partners has overseen the establishment of multiple real estate funds and joint ventures totaling $14 billion in equity commitments for investments in the United States, Europe and Asia. Its funds have collectively invested in over 600 transactions with an aggregated value in excess of $70 billion; as of March 31, 2013 AREA had approximately $6 billion of committed capital under management. Headquartered in New York, the firm has offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, London, Paris, Luxembourg and Mumbai. AREA’s funds target a broad range of opportunistic, value-added and debt investments in real estate assets and portfolios throughout North America, Europe, and India.

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Scale Venture Partners said Friday that it closed its most recent fund with $300 million in commitments. The total exceeded Fund IV’s target of $250 million. Limited partners include pension funds, financial institutions, foundations, funds of funds and family offices worldwide. Scale Venture Partners, of Foster City, Calif., targets early-in-revenue technology companies in SaaS, Cloud, Mobile and Internet sectors.

PRESS RELEASE

FOSTER CITY – May 10, 2013 – Scale Venture Partners (ScaleVP) today announced that it has closed ScaleVP IV, L.P. with $300M in commitments, exceeding its original target of $250M.  Limited partners (LPs) include leading pension funds, financial institutions, foundations, funds of funds and family offices worldwide. ScaleVP received strong support from its existing investors and also added several leading institutions as limited partners.

“We are deeply grateful for the support from our existing and new LPs who recognize the quality of our portfolio companies, our team-oriented culture and our focused investment approach,” said Kate Mitchell, Partner at ScaleVP. “We look forward to working closely with our limited partners, co-investors, and importantly, the entrepreneurs who are building the high-growth companies that are the lifeblood of the venture capital business.”

ScaleVP has raised a total of $1.5B since its inception and will continue to back early-in-revenue technology companies that are ready to scale. Previous investments include Box, DocuSign, HubSpot, ExactTarget, RingCentral and Omniture.

“Our focus at ScaleVP is on helping companies scale from first customers to mass adoption,” said Rory O’Driscoll, Partner with ScaleVP. We are seeing an inexorable trend in the adoption of cloud and mobile that is the driving force behind the revenue growth across our portfolio and the technology industry as a whole. ”

“ScaleVP has really emerged as a leading VC firm with a distinct strategy focused on scaling early-in-revenue companies,” said David York, Managing Director with Top Tier Capital Partners. “Top Tier is delighted to have partnered with the Firm since its first institutional raise and committed early to Fund IV based on the long standing team and strong track record.”

ScaleVP IV will be managed by seven partners who have worked together for an average of 11 years: Stacey Bishop, Rob Herb, Kate Mitchell, Rory O’Driscoll, Rob Theis, Andy Vitus and Sharon Wienbar.  ScaleVP also recently announced the additions of Alexander Niehenke, Qiyun Cai and Susan Liu to the team.  The ScaleVP team brings operating experience in high-growth technology companies as well as deep investment and financial skills.

Further detail on the firm’s new fund and reflections on the fundraising environment can be found on Kate Mitchell’s blog  post attached.

About Scale Venture Partners
Scale Venture Partners (ScaleVP) invests in early-in-revenue technology companies in SaaS, Cloud, Mobile and Internet sectors. ScaleVP’s passion and expertise is in helping entrepreneurs and management teams scale their business and grow into long-term companies that matter. ScaleVP has raised $1.5B since the firm was founded in 2000. Representative investments include: Box, BrightRoll, DocuSign, Everyday Health, ExactTarget, HubSpot, NComputing, Omniture, RingCentral and Vitrue.

ScaleVP is located in Foster City, California and invests nationwide. For more information, visit www.scalevp.com or follow us on Twitter at @scalevp or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/scale-venture-partners.

 

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What do you do when someone has done something bad and you know there’s nothing you can do to stop them, but you’re in a position of authority and you have to try anyway? You brave humiliation, as the U.S. State Department just did when it told 3D-printed gun designer Defense Distributed to take down its designs.

It’s not that the State Department did anything wrong here – indeed, if I were in the U.S. I’d be alarmed if there was a lack of action on their part. It’s just that, even though Defense Distributed quickly complied, the exercise was utterly pointless. The files are out there, hosted on catch-me-if-you-can services such as Mega and The Pirate Bay, which has a whole “physibles” section devoted to downloadable 3D-printed object designs (a good chunk of which are for weapons parts, by the way).

Stop doing that thing I can’t control! Please?

Analogies are not hard to find. As a journalist who spent many years working in the U.K., I am acutely aware of the absurdity of that country’s libel laws in the information age. British publishers sometimes have to shy away from information that everyone else in the world is happily publishing online – it may keep them safe from being sued, but it certainly doesn’t stop British people from reading and sharing these scurrilous rumors (and, occasionally, facts).

In effect, the State Department’s attempt to enforce American arms control regulations amounts, in this case, to censorship. I don’t mean that in a free-speech-justifies-weaponry sense; I simply mean that what was once a matter of controlling the trade in physical hardware has now become a matter of trying to stem the flow of bits and bytes.

This is precisely the same problem faced by record labels suffering a premature album leak, or those trying to stem the aftermath of a Bradley Manning-style leak, or even the European regulators who want to institute a “right to be forgotten” when anyone who’s ever used the internet could tell them it’s a fool’s errand.

Can we talk about this?

Personally, I strongly disagree with what Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson has done – I think it is irresponsible, and it may well lead to the loss of lives (though many have pointed out that it’s a heck of a lot easier to buy a ready-made gun than to make one yourself). However, in a way I’m glad that he’s done it.

I have zero doubt that similar designs have already been successfully executed by those who just don’t want to make a song and dance about it, and I would much rather have this sort of activity out in the open, stimulating an open debate. After all, what Wilson and the sharers of his designs did was completely inevitable. It may never become an issue on the scale of music and film “piracy” — I suspect more people like free media than want to shoot things — but it was always going to happen.

The challenge now, for regulators and for all of us, is to find a new approach to the control – or lack thereof – of things we don’t like, but that are now impossible to stop with mere border controls or targeted investigations. Perhaps most importantly, we need to find a way forward that doesn’t remove the liberties of those who like to share designs for less harmful objects.

It won’t be easy, but new problems require new solutions. Let’s talk.

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Nokia decided to bet everything on Windows Phone a few years ago and after six consecutive negative quarters, the company actually managed to make some profit from selling phones. Well, that’s not entirely true if we take into consideration the fact that most of the profit comes from Nokia Siemens Network.

How… (read more)

When you need to distribute a particular set of images – or perhaps reconstruct some scanned pages into a digital version of the original document – then being able to combine those JPGs into a single PDF can be very useful. There are commercial tools which will handle this for you, but if your needs are simple then there’s no need to spend big money; the free (for personal use) JPGasPDF could provide everything you need.

The program is compact (a single 572KB executable), with a basic straightforward interface. If you’re in a hurry you could just click the Add button to select your images, the Create button to save the finished PDF, and, well, that’s it — your document will be saved right away.

JPGasPDF does have one or two tiny extras, though, which help to make the program more interesting. So if your imported images are in the wrong order, for instance, that’s no problem – you can drag and drop to rearrange them.

Better still, you can save image lists and reload them later. This means that you could create a basic document template — a collection of images which you’d like to open and close your PDF, say — and then add other JPGs somewhere in between.

And the program even previews each image as you click on it. The preview pane is ridiculously small, unfortunately — around 80×60 pixels — and so almost entirely useless for text-based pages, but if your images have distinct graphics then there’s a faint chance you might recognize something.

JPGasPDF has some room for improvement. We’d like to see it able to import images via drag and drop, for instance – right now you can only do this via the Add button.

And the program really needs a better way to let you view the contents of an individual image, even if it’s only double-clicking the file to open it in the default JPG handler (this seems the simplest option, as currently there’s no double-click action at all).

Otherwise, though, JPGasPDF does its work very well, and is also compact, easy to use, with no adware or other marketing hassles at all. If you don’t currently have anything similar then we’d grab a copy immediately.

Photo Credit: Lilya/Shutterstock

Acronis International has added a new, cut-down backup tool to its roster with the release of True Image Lite 2013 by Acronis. Roughly six months after debuting the beta version, True Image Lite 2013 gets a final release, providing users with a simple tool for protecting specified folders through regular “non-stop” backups.

True Image Lite 2013 offers users two locations for backing up: a local storage device, such as external or network hard drive, and online through the Acronis Cloud, an optional add-on providing 250GB of internet storage for an additional outlay.

The software has been specifically targeted at novices, designed to make backing up documents and other key files as simple as possible: users simply select which folders they wish to back up, choose a backup destination and then leave the program to continuously update backups as files are added, changed and deleted.

By adopting an incremental approach to backing up, True Image Lite 2013 stores multiple versions of the same file, allowing users to roll back changes to earlier versions of a file or restore accidentally deleted files from the backup archive quickly and easily should the need arise.

Should users upgrade by adding the 250GB cloud storage option, they not only get additional peace of mind with having a backup stored in a remote location, but are also able to access their files from anywhere via a web browser or free mobile app for iOS and Android.

True Image Lite 2013 by Acronis is available now as a free trial download for PCs running Windows XP SP3 or later, and the full version is available in 1-PC and 3-PC licenses with MSRPs of $29.99 and $54.99 respectively. 250GB Cloud Storage is available as a bolt-on for $4.95 a month or $49.99 a year — one month’s free trial is provided with the program itself.

Also available is True Image 2013 by Acronis, a more fully featured imaging and backup tool, which can be purchased for the bargain price of $24.99 from the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 50 per cent on the MSRP.

Photo Credit: Balandina G/Shutterstock

Everyone knew Samsung was offering different variants of the Galaxy S 4 based on region, but according to an IHS iSupply teardown, that difference goes a little deeper than just the CPU.

According to the teardown, the US variant of the phone uses a separate Fujitsu image processor to handle functions such as the eye tracking and scrolling features that Samsung has heavily promoted. The reason behind this is that the Snapdragon S600 apparently couldn’t handle the processor intensive tasks alone, so Samsung improvised. The Exynos version of the phone doesn’t have the extra processor. Overall, it’s not really a huge deal, as most users probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway. And, honestly, that’s a pretty smart move by Samsung to make both versions of the device perform roughly the same.

The teardown also revealed that the US version uses different hardware for WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc., although I’m sure that had more to do with cost and availability than performance.

source: iSupply

via: ComputerWorld

Come comment on this article: US version of the Galaxy S 4 uses separate image processor for eye tracking

Carmageddon was a game made in the late 90′s that saw it’s share of banning and censorship around the globe, and in case you were interested, it’s now available on your Android device thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. This is the game’s first major release since an early 2000′s console port to the Nintendo 64, and for the first day, it’s going to be free. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t allow free apps to turn into paid apps in the Play Store, so after the 24 hours are up, the promo version will be pulled from the store and therefore won’t receive any updates. You can still opt for the paid version or use the demo version afterwards if you want to get updates to the app.

So if you want to test drive the game before you make a full purchase, hit the links below to check it out. Don’t wait too long, though.

Play Store Download Link (Promo)

Play Store Download Link (Paid)

Come comment on this article: Carmageddon shows up in the Play Store with a free promo version for 24 hours

Google Fonts is an excellent resource for web designers, with hundreds of top quality open source fonts freely available for anyone to use.

Now, though, you can also easily access and use the same fonts on the desktop, Windows or Mac, just by installing the SkyFonts client. The program requires you to first create a fonts.com account. But with that out the way, SkyFonts adds an icon to your system tray and is ready for use.

When you need a new font, right-click the SkyFonts icon, select Choose Fonts > Google Fonts, and a webpage will open at the fonts.com site. Click “Browse Google Fonts”, use the browser to find a font you need, click SkyFonts > Add, and it’ll immediately be downloaded and installed.

The program can also synchronize your fonts with other devices, as well as automatically detecting and downloading any font updates.

And if you need to track what you’ve done, then right-click the SkyFonts icon and click Font Activity for a list of installed fonts.

While this all works very well, the interface is a little uncomfortable, particularly with the need to switch between the SkyFonts client and its web interface.

The client feels a little underpowered, too — it can’t display a preview of any font, and we couldn’t see an integrated way to remove our chosen fonts — yet it still grabbed more than 50MB RAM when running in the background on our test PC.

Still, if you’re looking for a simple way to find and install new fonts, particularly if you want to synchronise them across several systems, then SkyFonts could prove very useful. Check it out.

Photo Credit: Hitdelight/Shutterstock

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